International Operating Engineer - Spring 2016

Election 2016: Special Series
Republican Presidential Nominee “Loves”
Right-to-Work Laws
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee, is in lockstep with the right-wing of his party
on labor law. Adopted by the delegates at the national
convention in 2012, the Republican Party platform is clear.
It states: “We support the right of States to enact Right-to-
Work laws and encourage them to do so to promote greater
economic liberty. Ultimately we support the enactment of
a National Right-to-Work law to promote worker freedom
and to promote economic liberty.” Donald Trump agrees.
In a recent interview, Donald
Trump says, “My position on Right-towork
is 100 percent. I love the Rightto-work.
I like it better because it is
lower. You are not paying the big fees
to the unions…It gives great flexibility
to the companies.” (You can listen to
the Trump’s radio interview at www.
engineersaction.org.)
Right-to-work laws force union
members to pay for services delivered
to “free riders” – individuals who
think it is ok to work under a collective
bargaining agreement and let everyone
else pay for maintaining and enforcing
its provisions, even grievances.
Trump is right. Right-to-work is
lower. States with Right-to-work laws
have lower wages, lower pensions, and
less safe workplaces.
Elected Republican Party leaders
in Congress and State Capitols across
the country have doggedly pursued the
Right-to-work “plank” in the party’s
platform. Four states have gone Rightto-work
in just the last five years. Earlier
this year, a Republican-controlled
legislature in West Virginia, a state
with a proud union tradition and some
of the highest levels of public support
for unions anywhere in the country,
steamrolled public opinion and the
Governor’s veto to enact Right-to-work
laws. And it does not stop there. The
Legislature also repealed the state’s
prevailing wage law.
Right-wing, anti-union forces are
also mobilizing nationally. Failed
Republican Presidential candidate
and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul
introduced Senate Bill 391, the National
Right-to-Work Act. Twenty-seven other
senators joined him as sponsors of
the bill, including the Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell and former
Republican presidential candidates
in the Senate – Ted Cruz, Lindsey
Graham and Marco Rubio. National
Right-to-Work legislation, H.R. 612,
was also introduced in the House
of Representatives. Right-to-work
will be one of the top issues on the
congressional agenda if Donald Trump
occupies the White House next year.
TRUMP FIGHTS UNIONS; UNDERMINES
LOCAL WAGE STANDARDS
Donald Trump has pursued a race
to the bottom in Right-to-work states.
The Las Vegas Strip is 98% unionized
for hospitality workers, members of
UNITE-HERE. Stationary Engineers
– members of Local 501 – maintain
a strong and growing presence in
Southern Nevada, where they work
closely with UNITE-HERE members
to raise the standards for all workers
in the industry. Members of Local 501
have dramatically increased their size
and strength in the city over the last
few years, winning major organizing
drives and achieving strong wage gains
in their first contracts. Donald Trump
seeks to undermine those standards.
Despite its high levels of
unionization, Nevada is a Right-towork
state. It has high wage standards
because of the strength of union
members, but Donald Trump seeks to
erode those standards. That should not
be a surprise. Trump believes that the
federal minimum wage of $7.25 – a rate
that has not changed for seven years –
should not be raised.
Trump has said, “…wages are too
high. We’re not going to be able to
compete against the world.” In a
different interview, Trump stated that,
“Having a low minimum wage is not
a bad thing for this country. We can’t
have a situation where our labor is
so much more expensive than other
countries’ that we can no longer win.”
In Las Vegas, Trump teamed up with
billionaire casino tycoon Phil Ruffin to
develop the Trump International Hotel,
where they have aggressively fought a
multi-year effort by 500 hotel workers
to organize a union. According to the
workers, they have been subjected to
surveillance, intimidation, and even
fired for supporting the union.
Trump Ruffin Commercial LLC has
pursued a classic anti-union campaign,
hiring a union-busting consultant, and
employing strategies to deny workers
their rights and lower the industry’s
local standards.
Workers at Trump International
Las Vegas earn $3 less an hour than
union members that work identical
jobs on the Strip. They don’t receive
pensions and they have to pay for their
own health care. Workers at Trump
International pay $128 every two weeks
to maintain health insurance that is
delivered by employers at no-cost to
union workers elsewhere on the Strip.
TRUMP CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
16 INTERNATIONAL OPERATING ENGINEER
SPRING 2016 17